Silicon Valley goes dark again

Summary:Here in California, we're famous for our Tech Industry and our rolling blackouts. In an area that's supposedly one of the technology leaders of the world, we can't seem to get reliable electricity.

Here in California, we're famous for our Tech Industry and our rolling blackouts. In an area that's supposedly one of the technology leaders of the world, we can't seem to get reliable electricity. It isn't just the Government's fault, a large portion of citizens in this state hate the production of energy but they're more than happy to consume it. This unfortunately leads to the situation we have now where it feels like we're in the Banana Republic of California when it comes to power reliability even though we're the most populous and probably wealthiest state in the Union.

About a year ago we had a nasty power outage in the heart of Silicon Valley that lasted for more than 2 days during the hottest time of the year. This week we've had a couple of blackouts including a 4 hour power outage last night. Fortunately it's back now (though I don't know for how long) so I won't need to go fill up a tank of gas for the mini-generator I got during last year's outage. What I will have to get is a small UPS so my computer doesn't keep bouncing up and down with hard shutdowns. It's off to the Computer store I guess.

George Ou, a former ZDNet blogger, is an IT consultant specializing in Servers, Microsoft, Cisco, Switches, Routers, Firewalls, IDS, VPN, Wireless LAN, Security, and IT infrastructure and architecture.